Following a dominant 33-7 Springboks victory over Australia at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, here are our five takeaways from the Rugby Championship opener.
The top line
A consummate display of power in defence, intelligence in attack and brilliance in set-piece saw the Springboks deliver a masterclass of Test rugby at a packed Suncorp as five tries to one told the story of the dominance of the visitors.
Tries from Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kwagga Smith and a brace from the outstanding Kurt-Lee Arendse only told part of the tale as South Africa achieved total set-piece dominance in a breathless game of collision and innovation from the visitors.
It was a statement performance against a Wallabies team that held on manfully in terms of their one-on-one defence but offered little in terms of width or pace in attack. Their discipline let them down enormously, but the litany of penalties, 17 in total, was as much down to the pressure of South Africa at the gainline as it was to the technical deficiencies of Australia.
For South Africa, they’ll take a lot out of this game in terms of their progression. They played with far more width and ambition with ball in hand than we’re used to seeing from the world champions and it’s clear that Rassie Erasmus is looking for the next evolution of style from his charges.
For Australia, it’s hard to know where they go from here – the defensive commitment and gainline effort was massive but outside of those basics, the Wallabies struggled for width, were absolutely stifled around the fringes and had their set-piece taken apart.
Springboks wallop woeful Wallabies in Rugby Championship opener to claim just their second Brisbane victory
Bok innovations
This Springbok team isn’t one that stands still and the level of innovation and experimentation that we saw from the coaches and players was thrilling to see at times.
It started with Cheslin Kolbe standing in at scrum-half to make a killing break down the openside of the scrum and it continued with the little winger popping up time and time again in the fly-half position allowing Willie le Roux and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu acres of space and loads of time to get outside as second receivers to add width.
We also saw Du Toit, a man who played at lock as a late change for the injured RG Snyman, and Kolisi able to stand out in the wide channels to take advantage of the extra man created by the midfield to crash up into contact on the touchline and recycle down the narrow side, something that allowed South Africa then to attack off phase play down the middle against reduced numbers.
And let’s have a word for the double pod lineout – on two occasions the Boks wreaked havoc with their innovation on their own throw as they threw up a middle pod and then a front pod with the first catch thrown to the second pod for the driving maul, a move that opened the door for Kolisi’s opening try.
It was a wonderful display of experimentation by the Boks and one that showed that Erasmus is looking to move his world champions to even new heights.
Basics shine
For all of the welcome innovation, the nuts and bolts of this impressive performance came from the time-honoured traditional qualities of Springbok rugby. The rush defence, led brilliantly by Jesse Kriel at 13, simply suffocated the one-out runs of the Wallabies and, as they committed numbers to the recycle, they simply never managed to get away from the contact to get any form of width on the ball.
At scrum time, it was business as usual as Ox Nche simply melted the Australian captain Allan Alaalatoa into the Queensland turf time and time again. You might have thought that bringing a flank into lock would depower the Bok eight, but there was no such luck for the Wallabies, who were eviscerated time and time again in the first half, until James Slipper rumbled on after half-time and, to an extent, stopped a little of the rot.
And, whilst the bomb squad didn’t perhaps have the effect that we usually see due to a couple of yellow cards in the second quarter, Smith came on and gave his own interpretation of impact, scoring a lovely close range try whilst adding massive physicality in the tackle and real intellect in turnover.
Just like the success of the innovation South Africa attempted, there was a big tick for the Bok basics, showing just how complete this team is becoming.
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Sacha swagger
At the centre of everything good about the Boks was the quite magnificent Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who added so much vision and ambition to the Springboks’ backline.
It wasn’t just his explosive running, it was a consummate display of high-quality fly-half play. Other than a horribly hooked penalty early on, his poise and willingness to impose his personality on the game was impressive for a man of his tender years. Whether it be raking and long touch finders, spiral bombs that landed with ice on them, or brilliant interplay as a a dual receiver with Kolbe or Le Roux, he delivered a performance of rare quality.
South Africa have often been criticised for a somewhat conservative approach in terms of their running with ball in hand but with this youngster pulling the strings the backline responded and looked almost liberated by his willingness to attack the Wallaby line at pace and to get his centres running hard, direct and killer lines.
He’s a man that plays the rugby he wants to play, where he wants and how he wants – demonstrating a level of confidence that bordered on wholly acceptable arrogance at times, as his forwards gave him a magnificent platform from which to run the match. An outstanding outing from a young, generational talent.
Wallaby worries
David Campese wrote this week that he was concerned that the one-out runner of the pod that Joe Schmidt favours would simply play into the defensive work of the Boks and his words proved to be entirely prophetic as Australia were absolutely muzzled around the carry area.
The physical hits of the Boks, combined with the turnover threat, saw Australia throw man after man into ball retention which in turn reduced their options in terms of width. It was something of a perfect storm of defence – Australia had to retain the ball but they simply had nobody available to use it effectively once they’d one it back.
But, in terms of their defensive effort, they stayed with the Boks for long periods of the match and showed welcome power and grunt in closing down the close runners of South Africa. Len Ikitau and Hunter Paisami both gave everything as they put in massive defensive shifts, and they were ably supported by the Wallaby back-row where Harry Wilson vindicated his selection, impressing both sides of the ball.
However, the simple truth is if you lose every aspect of the set-piece, if you can’t get width or pace through the hands close to the line then you’re always going to struggle against the world champions. Whilst Australia can take some pride out of their courage and physicality, there’s a hell of a lot of thinking to do in terms of their scrum, line out and attacking methodology.
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